


Primeval 100 Drabbles: 401-450

by Annariel



Series: Primeval 100 Drabbles [9]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Community: primeval100, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-07 03:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 49
Words: 4,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3158912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles from the primeval100 challenges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red

Becker briefly worried that Abby would cry but then mentally kicked himself. She loved animals and fought hard to protect them, but she knew full well that nature was red in tooth and claw.

Still it was a brutal shock, having carefully released the tiny Mahakala raptor back through the anomaly, to have a much larger beast, tentatively identified as an Austroraptor by Connor, emerge with the Mahakala in its jaws. Feathers flew and the Mahakala's legs kicked feebly for a moment or two. 

Then they stunned the Austroraptor, pried the dead creature free, and sent its killer back home.


	2. Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 402

Each person who vanished into time left a trace that whispered "remember me". If unchecked the whispers could become one vast cry, loud enough to rip apart the barriers and let time in.

Sapphire planted rosemary into the dusty ground. There was no whisper from this soul because out there, somewhere, Nicholas Cutter remebered. Still, the form of the thing mattered.

She stood. A vast field of rosemary tumbled down the steep slope to the acquamarine sea. Pale blue flowers waved in the gentle breeze.

"Rosemary for rememberance," Sapphire said even though, this time, there was no ghost to exorcise.


	3. Upside Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 403

Cutter felt Stephen's hand grip tightly on his arm. He turned his head, opening his mouth to ask a question but the look on Stephen's face made him clamp his jaw shut. Stephen pointed silently upwards.

Cutter looked up and saw large forms hanging silently from the rafters of the distribution warehouse. The figures hung upside down, with leathery wings wrapped around their bodies.

"They're huge," Cutter whispered in awe. "No one has found bats that large in the fossil record."

"I hate to sound alarmist," muttered Stephen, "but Helen said the predators from the future were descended from bats."


	4. Comfort Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 404

Three weeks after Sarah Page went into the ground and Becker resigned, Lester reluctantly ended the search for Abby, Connor and Danny. As he left, someone was fixing a Propero Industries logo to the ARC's doors.

At home, he stuck his head into the kitchen but Lyle brandished a tea towel and shouted "out!"

Half an hour later Lester was confronted by beef stew and roast potatoes. The wine had been carefully chosen, almost certainly not by Lyle, and there was a promise of apple crumble to follow.

Lyle didn't cook often, but when he did, he made it count.


	5. On the Farm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 405

"What do you think?" Abby asked.

They'd been shown around the farm by a flustered civil servant but were now alone in the old farmhouse kitchen. Connor had sulked through the tour, mostly, Abby hoped, because the ARC was being mothballed.

Connor took a deep breath. "The space is good," he said unexpectedly. "I've missed space with no people. Never thought I would."

"It will be good for the menagerie," Abby prompted. 

They weren't going to get anywhere better for the menagerie, but that didn't mean she and Connor had to be the keepers.

Connor nodded. "I think it'll do."


	6. Valentine's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 406

The roses didn't always arrive on Valentine's day, but always close. Some were early varieties and some shop-bought blousy reds. They appeared on her doorstep, or were delivered to work.

Ange assumed they were from Evan, though she didn't know why he sent them. Was it an apology? a request? a reminder that he was still alive, somewhere or somewhen. 

She would pick them up, snort with irritation and dump them. Then she would let Ken take her out for lunch.

He would shrug and say, "At least he hasn't forgotten us."

Ange wondered if he had forgiven them, though.


	7. Stolen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 407

"Where's Claudia?"

The angel could not help but pause. It was mostly concealed by foliage but some of it was exposed, had the humans cared to notice, and so it froze into stillness.

However, the humans did not notice, and it did not pursue them. For the moment it was sated with all those stolen seconds, minutes and hours.

Claudia Brown blinked. She was standing in a suburban street. Before her stood a suprised looking man in a suit with flares and an impressive set of sideburns?

"That was unexpected," he said. "I'm Jerry Lewis and who might you be?"


	8. Beowulf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 408

It was late and the dinner Jess had cooked (which, to be fair, had only been ready-made pizza) was long cold when Becker finally crashed, rather dramatically, into the flat. He had bruises down one side of his face, a pronounced limp and and one arm in a cast. 

Since he was upright and mobile and therefore presumably mostly OK, Jess narrowed her eyes at him over the top of the book she'd been reading.

"Before I went off shift you said it was only a small dinosaur," she said accusingly.

"It was. It turned out it had a mother."


	9. Dear Diary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 409.
> 
> Sequel to The Commonplace Book of Lady Emily Merchant, and in honour of tli's Captain Becker's Nouns series.

Summoned to meeting with Temporal Affairs Minister.

"We hear you keep a diary," she says.

"I'm afraid you are mistaken." 

I have a commonplace book. Not the same thing.

"We would appreciate your cooperation," Lester says and offers me a freshly baked muffin, thus reminding me that, since he continues to fail to employ a cook, he is the only source these.

He did employ a maid, referred to as a cleaning lady. Add Gladys to **the list** and resolve to lock away commonplace book in future.

"The publication of Captain Becker's diaries has been _so_ successful," the Minister simpers.


	10. Extinction Event

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 410

"Let's watch out for the Dodos," Danny said. "I've read about last time."

Abby narrowed her eyes at the birds which were placidly drinking from a stream. "They don't look the same as the Dodos we met. At some point the parasite must have died out. There were never any reports of it in the historical record. I checked."

"We should still give them a wide berth, better safe than sorry."

"I really don't think we need to worry about the Dodos," Connor said and pointed. 

Approaching the bay was the instantly recognisable shape of a large square-rigged sailing ship.


	11. Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 411

It was their wedding anniversary and Connor had pleaded so Abby reluctantly agreed to a long weekend on Svalbard. She couldn't honestly say she regretted it. Connor was bursting with excitement and babbling about astronomy in between looking for armoured bears. 

The hotels were full, but Lester knew someone who knew someone. They stayed in a cosy guest room and were plied with food and tales of arctic life.

The sky was cloudless; the snow was gleaming white; Abby donned her eclipse glasses.

"Uh Oh!" Connor whispered.

In the dark centre of the eclipse, shards of light turned and glittered.


	12. Sticky Tofee Pudding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 412

The sticky toffee pudding had been "deconstructed". It was delicious but each part was barely a mouthful. Nick and Stephen had been working hard at a local dig all day and Nick surveyed the vice-chancellor's assembly of the great and the good somewhat mournfully.

Half an hour later it occurred to Nick to look for Stephen. Stephen, it transpired, was in the catering pavilion contriving looking pale and wan while a bevy of cooks and waitresses fed him leftovers.

One eyed Nick sternly. "You work him much too hard," she said.

Stephen grinned guiltily, toffee sauce all around his mouth.


	13. Easter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 413

"Chocolate is poisonous to dogs."

"Diictodons are not dogs."

"You'll be cleaning up if they're sick." 

Lester straightend his tie and headed towards the front door.

"What about that Mammoth of yours, who cleans up after him if he's sick?" Connor shouted.

"I don't feed him Easter eggs."

"I saw you take him an Easter egg yesterday," Connor said accusingly.

"It was cocoa free. I have no wish to find myself on Miss Maitland's bad side, nor do you I imagine, if you make Sid and Nancy ill."

"Oh! point!" Connor hastily lifted the chocolate egg up above his head.


	14. Home Baking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 414

"The magic," Danny explained, beating in the egg furiously, "is in the wrists."

"I always thought the magic was having the correct ingredients, like sugar, and an actual oven." Sarah watched dubiously from the ARC kitchen door, as Danny added more treacle, cooking oil and cocoa to the mixture. She was beginning to regret confessing to a sudden craving for chocolate.

"Watch and learn!"

Danny grabbed a chipped mug from the cupboard, poured in the mixture and put it in the microwave.

Two minutes later Sarah was the surprised owner of a slightly rubbery, but otherwise perfectly acceptable chocolate cake.


	15. Spellbound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 415

"What on Earth possessed you to tell them you were he Great Wizard Qui Quae Quod?" Becker demanded as they ran.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time?" Connor said, panting a little for breath.

Becker risked a glance over his shoulder at the torches and pitchforks of the witch hunting mob behind them and then at the blinking `battery low' light on his EMD. 

"There's the anomaly," Connor gasped.

"Thank God!" 

If any of the peasants ventured through to the far side, Becker would be more than happy for the team to provide an instructive magic demonstration.


	16. Scientific Reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 416

Lester surveyed the remains of the paleo-chemistry lab.

"An unanticipated reaction with a previously unsuspected substance, you say."

Connor looked a bit wide-eyed but nodded.

Lester sniffed. "I can smell burnt custard."

"Umm, a side-effect?"

Lester was always suspicious when Connor delivered an opinion as if it was a question. He narrowed his eyes and examined the room more carefully.

"Was that a muffin tin?"

"Err, no?" 

Connor looked agonised.

Lester decided to relent. 

"Well I, for one, am convinced there is a perfectly good scientific reason for the fire that has nothing to do with Abby's surprise birthday party."


	17. White Noise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 417

It was a long time since there had been any voices on the radio. The broadcast stations went first. It was decades since she had heard anything approximating a show. Lone transmissions had lasted longer: people exchanging news point to point, requesting supplies, broadcasting desperate and doomed cries for help.

Now there was just white noise. She kept the radio on though, as did all survivors, and kept the batteries charged. Everyso often a pattern would emerge through the noise. An anomaly had opened somewhere close. It was time to secure the hatches and hope the predators passed them by.


	18. Six Degrees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 418

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We got to discussing [Erdős–Bacon numbers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_number) in the comments of [clea's drabble](http://clea2011.livejournal.com/141641.html). Mine is, arguably, 9, though only if you count home videos. Hopefully everyone has heard of the [Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon) in which you try to find a link between Kevin Bacon and some other actor via people they have starred together with in films. The Erdős number pre-dates this but works on the same concept - creating a link between mathematician, Paul Erdős, and yourself via co-authored papers.

Cutter leaned back with a smug smile on his face. "Erdős-Bacon number five!"

"Five!" There was a chorus of amazement from around the pub table.

"OK, I'll buy your Erdős number is, what, three? because of that statistician we worked with on the Hell Creek predator-prey classification paper. But where does your Bacon number come from?" Stephen asked.

Cutter coughed. "Douglas Henshall worked with Donald Sutherland in The Eagle who worked with Kevin Bacon in JFK!"

There were several groans from around the table.

"Right mate! For going meta on us, you have to buy the next round," Danny said.


	19. Life of the Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 419

"I'm so glad you turned up Caroline. You were the life of the party!" 

Helen grinned at Caroline over the top of her mocha frappucino. Caroline smiled weakly back. She hardly remembered the party. She guessed a lot of vodka had been involved.

"Shame you didn't bring that Connor chap you mentioned," Helen added.

Caroline shook her head. "We split up."

She didn't add that he had split up with her, by text of all things.

"Too bad, mind you, didn't really sound like your type."

"No," Caroline agreed.

After all, she was the life of the party, wasn't she?


	20. The Sky at Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 420

Abby breathed deeply and gazed up at the panoply of stars above.

"They are beautiful without light pollution," she remarked.

Connor, lying next to her, grunted something which sounded vaguely like agreement. Abby let her eyes wander across the star field, picking out the brightest stars.

"Do you know the constellations at all? I only know the Big Dipper and I can't spot it."

"I used to have a telescope..." Connor started than then trailed away.

"What?"

"Bugger! It doesn't really matter, we're too far back. The stars will have moved into new shapes before humans get to name them."


	21. S.O.S

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 421

Eric kept tapping out the message on his straight key, three dots followed by three dashes followed by three dots. He had little hope of hearing a response. In his heart he knew that they had moved beyond the range of telegraph communication when the warship passed through the sparkling light on the waters of the Aegean.

The ship rocked as another of the great creatures rammed its hull. Somewhere deep below him something creaked and groaned as the metal plates began to buckle.

Eric kept on tapping because there was nothing else to be done.

S.O.S. Save our Souls.


	22. Egypt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 422

Sarah sighed with resignation. From her position on the villa roof, she could see that something had gone wrong with the plough or the ox. Farm servants were gathered around gesticulating. She twisted up her hair and pinned it out of the way. It would be baking in the fields and she could tell her intervention would be needed. 

Still, she couldn't help a small smile. She was living in ancient Egypt as the Pharoah's advisor on anomalies! One day she would find her way back to the 21st century, but in the meantime she revelled in the unique experience.


	23. Breaking and Entering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 423

Danny couldn't help a grin when the front door opened to reveal Jenny standing in the hallway looking smug. He'd just managed to snaffle a ladder and had been proposing to check out the locks on the upper windows under the pretext of cleaning them.

"Breaking and entering will get you into all sorts of trouble," he told her.

"I didn't break, I only entered," she said with dignity. "The back door was unlocked."

Danny rested the ladder up against the front of the house. "That can't be good."

Her face fell and she shook her head. "No, it isn't."


	24. Running Late

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 424

"The meeting with Mr. Burton has been rescheduled to 9am."

Lester glanced at his watch, it was 8.30. "That's very short notice."

"Mr. Burton and the Minister are both busy men."

Lester was tempted to argue but there wasn't time. As it stood his chances of making to the meeting, in half an hour, in the rush hour, were slim.

He slammed down the phone. Burton clearly wanted him out of the way during the final negotiations for the Prospero partnership.

"I have the Aston Martin here."

Lyle stood seductively in the hall, swinging the car keys from one finger.


	25. Raptors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 425

Dr. Sinclair took a deep breath, reminded herself that Connor Temple was the best of her PhD students, even if he was only part time, and started to talk him through the evidence again.

"The Liaoning fossels show..." she started.

"Dr. Sinclair, I _know_ that the Liaoning fossils show there were feathered dinosaurs. What I'm telling you, unequivocably, is that a significant number of raptors were not feathered. The proof is covered by the official secrets act, so I realise I can't write a paper on it, but I simply won't put my name to something that states the opposite."


	26. Clueless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 426

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clueless crossover. I've only watched Clueless once, years ago, so Cher is probably even more out of character than the situation would suggest.

Cher was choosing an outfit when the anomaly opened and spat out a raptor. This was a monumental pain. The day was complicated and choosing the right outfit required more thought than usual. A raptor was not going to help, especially if she got blood on her clothes.

Sighing to herself, Cher pulled a tranquiliser gun out of the cabinet, shot the raptor and tossed it back again. Recognising it was beaten, the anomaly closed sheepishly under her glare.

Cher now only had ten minutes to pick her outfit. It was a good job she had natural flair and style.


	27. Ready or Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 427

Danny had no idea where or when this abandoned factory complex was. The technology was familiar, but its eerie emptiness was ominous. The way his shoes rang on the metal walkways would give his position away and the monstrosity would not remain barricaded in the tool shed for long.

Danny stopped running. There was a cabinet by the wall, door hanging open. He squeezed inside and closed the door. From the distance came the sound of smashing wood. The creature was loose. It let out a harsh cry which sounded to Danny's desperate ears much like `coming, ready or not'.


	28. New Horizons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 428

"What on Earth's that?" Lester asked, squinting at Connor's desktop.

"It's the anomaly network model."

"Connor, I may not be some technical genius, but I think I'd recognise the anomaly model."

"I've zoomed out a bit."

Lester mentally digested that and he adjusted the scale. "I'm glad to see we don't have anomalies opening up into the vacuum of space. Except for there it seems." Lester pointed to a lone dot.

"Well that's not in space, exactly. That's the centre of the heart on Pluto."

Lester sighed. "Something tells me that can't be good." Please, not aliens, he silently added.


	29. Mirror, Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 429

Connor had often thought he didn't look quite the same in the mirror. His looking glass version seemed more confident somehow, and perhaps a little gothier. Connor assumed it was just one of those things. There was probably a name for it. Someday he would remember to look it up on the internet.

However, when he got back from his year in the Cretaceous, Looking Glass Connor looked nothing like him at all and actually did a double-take of suprise. Then he grinned, tipped the battered brown top hat he was wearing and clearly said, "Nice to see you back!"


	30. The Cretaceous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 430

Lester wasn't sure why Connor was delivering the status report. The boy had said something garbled about Quinn, a forklift truck and a bazooka. Lester was hoping, probably in vain, that if he ignored the comment Quinn would put everything back with no one the wiser.

"Do we know where the anomaly leads to?" Lester asked.

"The Cretaceous for definite."

"Oh goody! My favourite time period."

"Really? You too? It's great isn't it."

Lester reflected, not for the first time, that Connor uniquely combined the scientific team's vast enthusiasm for extremely dangerous wildlife with the complete inability to detect sarcasm.


	31. Asteroids, Meteors and Stuff from Space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 432

Jess and Connor stared in shock at the NASA livestream. 

"Can we work out where that anomaly went?" Jess asked after a moment.

Connor started into action, muttering about correlations and trajectory models.

In Lester's office a telephone started ringing.

"I assume you're aware NASA's first autonomous there-and-back Mars mission has vanished," Lester's asked a couple of minutes later.

"Yeah, we think, err..."

"You know we believe asteroids were responsible for most major extinctions," Jess said desperately.

"Yeah," said Connor, "asteroids, meteors and, you know, stuff from space." He waved at the image of the NASA craft entering an anomaly.


	32. Who do you think you are?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 433

There was an angry and familiar looking Scotsman in Lester's office, seated in Lester's chair, drinking Lester's whiskey. However, Lester had faced down more awkward visitors than Nicholas MacRanald, laird of Glen Barras.

"Are you supposed to be in charge around here? I need to get back to 1843 immediately. I'm telling you that you shouldn't be messing with things you don't properly understand." MacRanald said.

"He even sounds like Cutter," Abby whispered in awed tones, somewhere behind Lester's back.

"All in good time, Mr. MacRanald. First, if you could kindly answer some questions about your knowledge of the anomlies."


	33. Sensory Deprivation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 434

His first memories were indescribable, perhaps because there was nothing to describe. Later he came to liken it to floating in a bath, but even there he could feel the warmth of the liquid, the air across his face, the gentle pulls of gravity and buoyancy and the strange distorted sounds of the world echoing through the water.

His first memories were of a nothingness that surrounded him, engulfed him, and protected him. Although his first awakening had been abrupt, he had only slowly emerged from the nothingness, a mind filling gradually with thoughts and feelings and, finally, free will.


	34. Emily Merchant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 435

Emily Merchant had been a difficult child. She was too thin and her features were too pointed. She was not troublesome, but her gaze was sharp and disconcerting, and when called upon to speak her answers, while not wrong, were not right.

Her father was relieved to secure a good match, even after she grew into her looks. It was no love match but then Emily was no romantic. She had plenty of good sense and her father hoped she would make much of her new position.

Had it not been for the anomalies he might even have been right.


	35. Bad Hair Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 436

"You know," Sarah said thoughtfully, "that is the third time in a row that Cutter and Becker have left the pub together."

There was a pause as everyone regarded their pints thoughtfully.

"What exactly are you getting at?" Connor asked cautiously.

Jenny started sniggering and then choked on her beer. Matters were thus derailed while she recovered and Abby mopped up the mess with a napkin.

"So, Cutter and Becker," Connor pursued relentlessly, once calm had descended.

Jenny spluttered and managed to say, "Suprised hair meets perfect hair! Oh think of the poor children," before dissolving into giggles once more.


	36. Sweet Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 437

After Stephen's death Nick woke many times from restless nightmare-fueled sleep into a sweaty panicked darkness. Lester recommended counselling strenuously, even without knowing about the nightmares, but Nick refused. It was his fault and his cross to bear.

Then one night, after a balmy April day full of promise for summer, he woke briefly to find a cool hand on his forehead and Helen's face, as he remembered it from when she had vanished, hovering over him. Long hair framed a puzzled and concerned expression.

"Hush, sleep," she whispered.

And he did, his confused and sleep deprived mind obeying instinctively.


	37. Wasted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 438
> 
> Umm, yes. Well I have just gone and read [The Wasteland](http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html). Very pretty, I will not even venture an explanation for it. However since it is based on the Legend of the Fisher King and the Holy Grail and someone must have found (or created, I suppose) a time travel device for Matt and Gideon to use to get back to the 21st Century I have decided that Matt had to go find a time travel device and then to draw an analogy to the Holy Grail. I have a horrible feeling that this explanation contains more words than the drabble.

April is the cruellest month. I walk on. Many-towered, the city passes: Taipei One; The Empire State Building; Babylon. All rise, then fade. Time builds and destroys faster, the closer I get. Time or delerium, who can say.

The bones stick out of the baked sand. These are pearls that were his eyes. He lies under London bridge. The world has ended. I have no time to fish in the river. 

In the river of time, I will swim away from the ruins. The towers are falling, fallen, but I will exist before the fall and all will stand again.


	38. Out of Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 439

"We just need to direct the herd," Danny had said. 

"Someone should ride the lead animal," Danny had said.

"I can ride," Danny had said.

Of course Danny could ride, what couldn't he do? Becker had swallowed down a pointed retort and let the man get on with it. In the long run it would save time and argument.

However, Becker had to work hard to conceal a smug smile as Danny's Triceratops careened haphazardly through three fields of wheat; a herd of cows; and a very muddy river.

"Do you think he's really got it under control?" Connor asked.


	39. Pangaea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 440

Shortly after stepping through her first anomaly, Emily met Nbushe. Nbushe had been an explorer since her father first took her walking along the Rift Valley.

But now Nbushe's ambition was to map Pangaea from North to South and East to West. She taught Emily to survive, showed her how to identify when and where she was if they travelled through an anomaly. But whatever era, Nbushe always shook her head, and returned to Pangaea.

Emily thought Nbushe could have found her way home, had she wanted to, but she had lost her heart to this one particular, uncharted wilderness.


	40. Dirty Little Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 441

Ik'chr'ck frowned as M'rw'tl peered nervously around his office door.

"I told you never to contact me," he said sternly.

"There may be a complication."

Ten minutes later Ik'chr'ck was watching several temporal simulations. "What is this planet? Anyone ever go there?"

M'rw'tl shook its head. 

Ik'chr'ck had heard, of course, that anomalies could result from copulation between incompatible time-sensitive species. Academically interesting, but there was his career to consider.

"Ignore it," he said. "Delete all your files."

M'rw'tl nodded. "Your place again tonight?"

"Unwise under the circumstances." 

Ik'chr'ck looked at M'rw'tl's expression and realised it would need paying off.


	41. Hurt/Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 442

"What's this?" Becker asked.

Matt, having a clearout, was dumping files into a large bin bag. He glanced over. A piece of paper had drifted from an over-stuffed ring-binder. "First draft of my fake CV, ignore it."

"You lost a leg while wrestling a crocodile," Becker read. "What? Did it grow back?"

Matt shrugged. "We slightly over-estimated the wonders of historic medicine."

"Was that before or after you had to dig your way out of an avalanche?"

"Just put the damn thing in the bin bag, Becker."

Becker grinned. "Well at least I'm here now to kiss it all better."


	42. Herbivores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 443

"Herbivore right?" Danny asked. "This shouldn't be too bad."

Jenny scowled. "Did you actually read the briefing file I sent you?"

"Dunno, which bit?"

"I expect she means bit where pre-historic creatures are listed in order of how dangerous they are." Sarah said helpfully. "As I recall it starts with big and bitey, then massive and stupid, big and bad-tempered, medium and bitey... That anklyosaurus is definitely big and bad-tempered."

Danny considered the dinosaur which promptly took out a humvee with its tail. "Better than a diplodocus but worse than a velociraptor then."

"Yes." 

Danny grinned. This would be fun.


	43. Extreme Weather Conditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 444

The limitless ice field was illuminated only by anomaly and bright stars. Even through thick thermal layers and respirator, Emily could feel the cold.

She was theoretically on watch, though they believed only single cellular organisms could possibly survive in the anaerobic atmosphere. Matt was taking a visual record of the sky while Connor took physical samples.

The ruggardised timer, strapped to Emily's wrist, beeped the retreat signal. Connor grumbled in frustration, words obscured by his breathing apparatus.

Still, they had more data. Caution limited their trips to such harsh environments, but Snowball Earth had sacrificed a few more secrets.


	44. Broken Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Challenge 445

Stephen had promised himself he wouldn't get too involved with his beautiful and fascinating supervisor. When she disappeared, he promised himself he would finish his PhD no matter what. Then he promised himself that, in spite of the man's generous offer, he wouldn't accept her husband as the replacement supervisor.

Although the Research Assistant job was appealing, he promised himself he would make a clean break and get into conservation. 

He promised himself he wouldn't be getting involved with Helen again.

Finally, though, he promised himself that he would fix this mess since it was largely of his own making.


	45. I Can't Do This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 446

Helen's hand trembled as she held the gun before her. She didn't think Nick could tell, but she felt the shaking in her wrist and elbow. The gun was heavy and pulled down her outstretched arm. Helen looked Nick in the eyes and he stared back at her. `I can't do this' she thought. She turned and fled into the darkness and the smoke and flames.

In a far future devastated by the results of the anomaly research centre's experiments she cursed her weakness. Still, one of the advantages of time travel was that there was always a second chance.


	46. Winter is Coming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 447

Matt waded through the stagnant water, trying to sort the food that had survived the flood from that which had not. 

Himemeya stood in the store hole's entrance with a tense and drawn face. "Is all the grain gone?" she asked.

Matt fished another apple out of the water and checking it for bruises and mould before dropping it into a sack of rescued items. "All the grain is mush, a lot of the vegetables are rotten, none of the meat had salted properly and now its been in water for week."

He surveyed the devastation, "and winter is coming."


	47. Christmas Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 448

The ARC humvees screeched around the corner of Main Street, dodging fleeing Christmas shoppers. Main street was a mess of broken windows, trailing Christmas lights and a large, somewhat irritated, Hadrosaur. 

The anomaly itself had taken pride of place in front of the municipal Christmas tree. It glittered, smugly star-like, having outshone all the opposition. Jenny had already started writing copy about `Christmas light switch on gone wrong'. Nick wondered idly, as they tempted the Hadrosaur back through the anomaly with branches from the tree, whether she would be able to spin the dinosaur as some kind of over-enthusiastic elf.


	48. Christmas Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 449

Lester frowned as the anomaly team straggled back into the ARC. The team seemed to have brought a lot of bulging plastic bags back from the anomaly in front of the municipal Christmas tree.

"Don't I pay you lot to watch anomalies? Since when does that involve raiding the three-for-two aisle in Boots for last minute presents?" Lester asked.

"We got given it," Abby said. "A promotinal Christmas elf hat each; a slightly wonky ex-display tree for the rec room, and twelve dozen free, only mildly Hadrosaur trampled, mince pies. The mayor described it as a token of her appreciation."


	49. Santa's Grotto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 450

The anomaly led to a sparkling ice cave where, Becker blinked in surprise, a large elderly man in red was checking teetering piles of brightly wrapped presents. He scowled when he saw the ARC team.

"Blooming soldiers! Shove off! You're blocking my way!"

"You travel by anomaly?" Becker asked.

"How else would I get around everyone in time?"

"Magic Reindeer?" Connor said.

"Don't be stupid. Now hurry along!"

Sheepishly the team retreated to the children's ward where the anomaly had opened.

"Blooming young people these blooming days!"

But there was a tank, wrapped in red paper, in the car park.


End file.
